In Future Portland, the jumble of newsracks that stand on streetcorners may be a bygone.

_MG_7220.JPG

Last week, under a plan to clean up downtown, the Portland Business Alliance cut the ribbon on the fancy new racks that will replace the individual stands with boxes that hold a eight newspapers (including the Mercury). Behold!

_MG_7228.JPG

Four of these new $3,500 racks have gone in around Pioneer Square, in a year-long private and publicly funded pilot project. The Portland Bureau of Transportation is paying for the cost of the newsracks, which are then maintained by Clean & Safe workers. On the corners with these racks, the old, messier racks will be illegal. If the city likes the way the racks work, the stands will likely spread around downtown.

I thought this was kind of a naggy non-issue of people who would prefer downtown to look like Multnomah Village. But on my way to the ribbon cutting last week, I stopped off at Give Pizza a Chance for the best $5, 5-minute lunch in Portland and pizza-slinging owner Scott Davison struck up conversation about how bad the current jumble of racks are. On the corner of SW 5th and Stark, right in the middle of the busy food cart pod, seven racks take up a substantial chunk of the sidewalk—only four racks are actually for newspapers, the rest hold advertisements for apartments and houses.
“They were clear out the the middle of the sidewalk, blocking traffic. There wasn’t room to put out our sign,” said Davison.
“It’s a blight!” chimed in another customer, through mouthfuls of pizza.

The new newsracks are much cleaner and insure that sloppy newsprint apartment advertisers don’t get free space on city sidewalks. On the other hand, if a new newspaper pops up in town, they could have a higher barrier to getting out onto the streets. If the Portland Business Alliance thinks they’re worth the cost, they could be all over downtown in a few years.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

13 replies on “Goodbye, Slovenly Newsracks of Downtown!”

  6. I’m going to laugh when someone burns one of these $3,500 units.

    I thought about if this could be a barrier to independent publishing, and I’ve done a lot of independent news distribution in the past in this city. Independent papers are very important in our society, and I’ve always really liked how easy distribution can be in this city. I did note that the Portland Radical has a spot on these new racks.

    So: what’s the process to get into one of these…? Do I just grab the shit that’s currently in one and replace it with my own? That’s what I’m assuming.

    Also: How much is the Portland Mercury going to have to pay in order to put their paper in these racks, when the Mercury runs a hit piece on the Portland Business Alliance, and all of these racks are the private property of the PBA? Are these racks private property, or are they donated to the Public?

  9. 1) I hope Give Pizza a Chance paid some good money for that ad.
    2) One could say that food carts are also a messy jumble.
    3) The PBA is solely interested in homogenization, and this is a great example.
    4) In regards to “insuring that sloppy newsprint apartment advertisers don’t get free space on city sidewalks”: YEAH! BOO FREE SPEECH, AND SIDEWALKS THAT ARE SHARED BY ALL.

  10. @Wm Steven Humphrey – They pay me in pizza, which is far more delicious than the peanuts I get paid here.

    (kidding! kidding!)

    @fidelity_axiom – good questions! I just got answers from the PBA. If a publication wants to be in the racks, they should email the PBA and they’ll be added to a wait list that will be allowed into the boxes if space opens up. Space in the racks is free to papers. PBOT paid for the cost of the racks entirely, so they’re public (I added a sentence to the original post noting that).

  13. Unless the city can noodle a way to NOT limit access to just 8 or 10 or 12 publications, this is the nanny state picking winners and losers.

    They love that of course. KoolAid Drinkers too.

    Do YOU really want the gubmint picking winners and losers?

Comments are closed.